


Vulcans have slit pupils

by Fuuma_san



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Fluffy, Getting Together, Is he mysterious or just socially awkward?, M/M, Vulcans are kitties, short but cute fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 15:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18264083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuuma_san/pseuds/Fuuma_san
Summary: Kirk becomes curious about his first officers eyes, and whether they are more human or vulcan. The mystery must be solved!Because I had the idea and it wouldn't leave me alone till I wrote it.





	Vulcans have slit pupils

Bones was cursing vehemently this time as he patched up the cuts on Kirk’s chest, but he mostly just tuned it out nowadays. Until–

“That slit-eyed-sonufabitch needs to stop letting you put yourself in these stupid situations or–”

“Wait, what did you just say?”

Bones huffed, “That’s true, lady Amanda is a goddamn saint, my apologies.”

Kirk shook his head. “No, the other thing. Slit eyed?”

“Oh, yeah, didn’t you know? Vulcans have slit pupils. Lets ‘em contract farther, good for blocking out their bright sun but still see indoors and at night.”

“Wait, so like a kitty cat? Or ugh no, not like a sheep, please.”

“I don’t actually know, never cared enough to look it up. And all those pointy eared hobgoblins have dark eyes for the same reason–bright sunlight on the homeplanet, so it’s not like it’s easy to tell. You’d have to be really close and looking straight at ‘em.”

“Yeah, but Spock is only half vulcan. He could have round human pupils then?”

“Yeah he might. Never needed to examine his eyes so fuck if I know.”

Kirk nodded, and Bones went back to his work. Now it was bothering Kirk though. Cat eyes would be cool. Cooler than plain eyes. But oh god, what if it was sheep eyes? They’re so creepy. You can’t tell what direction they’re facing and they’re so… oblong.

And so Kirk resolved that he would solve this mystery. You know, because he couldn’t go around thinking of his first officer as a goat faced creeper. That’d be bad for team dynamics and morale.

It turned out a lot harder a mystery to solve than he expected. First, he tried just looking him directly in the eye whenever they talked. But the damn man tended to look at the floor when receiving orders, followed by a glance up only with the “yes, Captain.” When talking, Spock made brief eye contact and then his gaze roved about as he spoke, and he was so tall he was always looking down at everyone anyways, hooding his eyes with his long, thick lashes.

Kirk had to escalate. He tried standing closer, but without missing a beat Spock would just take a step back before engaging with him. So he started looking for places in the ship to corner him- the turbo lifts, the mess- and then went out of his way to accompany Spock in those places. He thought the turbo lift was a good idea, but the man consistently focused a hard gaze at the door well above them both whenever they were in there, so it was a bust. He even started eating lunch and dinner together, in the hopes that over some casual moment his first officer would let his guard down just a bit and look him in the eye from across the table, but alas, it didn’t happen.

And then a great chance came up. Spock, sitting in the rec room, staring thoughtfully at a chessboard. A chessboard! A one-and-a-half foot tiny table! Kirk immediately sat opposite.

“Do you play, Captain?”

“You can say that, yes. Would you like to try me?”

It may have been Kirk’s imaginating, but the vulcan positively lit up.

“It would be my pleasure, Captain.”

Kirk ended up needing to focus most of his attention on the game, since Spock was a very challenging opponent, but in the end he won. He smiled up at Spock when he said “checkmate” and only then realized he’d wasted the opportunity of sitting this near his first officer and hadn’t once remembered to try to look at his eyes. 

“A well played, though… erratic strategy. Would you care for a rematch?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Spock.”

 

When it finally happened, Kirk had mostly given up even trying. After all, it had been months, and after than long, curiosity faded and the lingering fondness for the man had grown till even sheepupils were probably handsome on the man. 

So when they were in the turbo lift, about to start the alpha shift, and Spock turned to him and inquired about their upcoming game and hanging out later that evening, Kirk didn’t even notice how much eye contact had happened till it was over. So he made a quick quip, nothing special, just about their current win rates, and was surprised when Spock faced him again, making direct eye contact and said, “Jim, I believe I am only two wins less than you in total. That hardly qualifies as ‘2 for oh’ considering the prodigious amount of matches we have engaged in.”

And thanks to the sadistic designers of this bright, white room he usually hated this early in the morning, because there they were, looking right at him, Spock’s big round pupils, half as large as his irises. 

It was almost a disappointment, since he’d half heartedly wanted to tease the man about being a kitty cat, but it still brought a warm feeling in his chest and a big smile on his face. Every once in a while after that, while playing chess or talking on the bridge, he’d get a moment looking into those big, round pupils in those black eyes and it always brought the same warm feeling and a bright smile to his face. 

 

It was supposed to be a routine survey away mission, on a mostly barren, rocky planet, but something exploded as Spock stepped on it, flinging him into the air and then smack back to the ground, where he lay unmoving. Of course he had been off to the side by himself, as usual, engrossed in his tricorder readings.

“Bones, Get over here! Spock’s injured and unconscious!” Kirk barked across the crater they’d been scanning by hand, even though the man had already looked up at the noise and was now moving that way. Kirk reached Spock’s side only slightly after Bones, who had started scanning his head and neck.

“Nothing’s broken, but I need to get him back to sickbay for treatment.”

Kirk nodded and flipped out his communicator “Kirk to Enterprise, emergency beam up.”

Kirk stayed with him all the way to Sickbay, though Bones had him patched up and gave him a clean bill of health in short order.

“Mild concussion, and it’s done being treated. He should wake up momentarily, nothing for you to worry over.”

Kirk nodded, and sure enough, Spock was starting to flinch and blink awake. As he looked around him, ascertaining the situation, Bones repeated it to the patient, adding, “and you’re off duty for the next few days and on light activity restrictions just in case. Take it easy.”

“Thank you Doctor. I shall comply with your advisement.”

“No wait, Bones, what’s wrong with his eyes. They look weird.”

“They WHAT? I fixed the darned thing, it better not have started bleeding…” Bones grumbled, getting a pen light as Spock raised an eyebrow and looked between them. Bones waved the light over each eye, and Kirk watched in confusion as clearly cat-eyed slits closed to a thin vertical line in the center when the light was shined on them. 

“Scaring me for nothing, kid. They look fine, nothing’s wrong with them. I repeat, he’s got a clean bill of health, two days light activity only.”

“But, they’ve never looked like that before. He has round pupils, like, big round ones, not cat ones.”

Spock stiffly and quickly sat up, ramrod straight and spoke rather hurriedly, “Thank you Doctor for your medical care. Captain.” And practically fled the room, leaving Kirk to stare in confusion at Bones. 

“The word you looking for, kid, is ‘dilated.’ His pupils are usually dilated around you.”

“What does that mean?”

“Computer, list the most common reasons for dilated pupils in humanoids once injury, disease, and medicines are ruled out.”

“The most common reasons for dilated pupils in humanoids after injury, disease, and medicines are dim lighting conditions and sexual attraction,” the computer robotically listed, as Bones made an exaggerated MM-hhhmmmm GET IT NOW faces at Kirk. 

Kirk’s face burned and all he managed was a small “Oh.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to anyone who reads this, as it is the first fanfic I've posted to AO3. Comments and suggestions are welcome. I may at some point write more of this, but as I'm not really experienced with smut, which is OBVS where this goes next (gotta go apologize and clear things up. In his quarters, where he fled), so I'm in no hurry.


End file.
